


JWP 2020 #14: Silence No Refuge

by methylviolet10b



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Angst and Feels, Homesickness, M/M, Prompt Fic, World War I
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25276744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/methylviolet10b/pseuds/methylviolet10b
Summary: The mission is over now. Sussex is just as peaceful and quiet as I remembered it.  Written for JWP #14 over on Watson's Woes.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25
Collections: Watson's Woes JWP Collection: 2020





	JWP 2020 #14: Silence No Refuge

**Author's Note:**

> **Warnings** : Probably OOC. Maudlin. Homesickness of various sorts. And written in a huge rush. You have been warned.
> 
>  **Prompt** : The Rest is Silence: Let your work today include a time when silence was essential or the main focus of attention. For example: Holmes staying silent and infuriating Watson; silence waiting for a telegram/phone call; silently waiting for a suspect...

Chicago rivaled London for noise. Americans were rarely quiet. Ireland, Buffalo – equally noisy in their own ways. And even when things were relatively calm, it was never peaceful, never truly silent, for the tension of my mission created sufficient noise in my head on its own.

The mission is over now. Sussex is just as peaceful and quiet as I remembered it. As I dreamed of many times.

Quieter.

Absolutely silent.

There are no bees in the hives. The clock on the mantel is run down, unwound. There is no one else in this house that was the home I longed for and dreamed of all those endless years.

Watson left on the morning train to report to his new regiment. I escorted him there myself, giving him a staid public good-bye in keeping with the persona he crafted for me over the years in typeface and newsprint. We said our true farewells in private the night before, and in the early dawn before leaving for the station. I made him promise to come back to me, though we both knew how illogical it was, how beyond his control. This coming war will kill numbers beyond counting, without any consideration of how much its victims are beloved or how many would be diminished by their loss.

He promised it anyway. I promised I would wait.

I did not say where. I thought it would be here, in Sussex; but that Sussex cottage I longed for is still beyond my reach, for Watson is not here, and the silence is deafening.

Mycroft has more work for me, and much more spacious quarters these days. He has offered me a room, and I shall accept. London shall again be my residence until such time as Watson and I can both return home.


End file.
